A photo tour of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Ars visits the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and takes you along for the …

From the control room, a bus took us over the 2.5-mile ring where the gold ions are accelerated and collided. Although it was built above ground, the ring has been covered in an earthen berm, and trees typical of the Long Island pine barrens have since moved back in.

The primary accelerator ring is buried underneath the rise in the background.

The ring was originally constructed for an accelerator that never got built, and detector hardware progressed considerably before RHIC was approved. As a result, the detectors can barely squeeze in to the rooms along the beam path. In order to open and service them, Brookhaven has built large sheds; the detectors can be hauled out into these areas for servicing and upgrades.

The capacious work area for the STAR detector.

Since we were there during scheduled downtime, it was safe to perform minor maintenance tasks on the detector hardware itself. (It was also safe to bring reporters right up to the collision areas.)

A Brookhaven staff member performs some minor work on the STAR detector.